Jazz Age Flashcards
What was the jazz age?
The jazz age signifies and age of freedom in thought and action.
The person who named the jazz age was an American writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald
WWI had been so bad that people felt lucky to have survived it.
Young people threw away all the restrictions in manners, clothes and morals that existed before WWI
6 main causes of economic growth in the 1920s in USA and explain them
WWI - the USA joined the war in 1917, and while European countries fought to destruction America was unharmed.
The western economy had borrowed money from American banks to buy armaments from American firms. This meant European economies were having to pay back the loans while struggling to recover from the war.
Mass production - two major advances in technology helped American firms increase their productivity. This meant that not only were American firms producing goods in huge quantities but also at a very cheap price.
Mass marketing and credit - their markets were developing and increasing. ‘Higher purchase’ - buy on credit.
The stock market - investors bought ‘shoves’ in a firm and the firm used the money to expand.
Government policies - businesses were given to freedom to do what they wanted.
Cycle of prosperity - as businesses grew profits got bigger, people became wealthier and spent more money
What were flappers?
Girls that drunk, smoke and drove cars.
They chatted up men and asked them on dates.
More traditional people thought this was going to far, these young people there not responsible.
What happened to dances and what were speakeasies?
Fedora WWI people danced very sedate dances like the waltz, in the jazz age the Charleston was all go!
In America all alcohol was banned - illegal drinking clubs called speakeasies sprung.
Name two books which described life in the 1920s
This side of paradise
The great Gatsby
How did the jazz age spread?
People got ideas from magazines, radio, newspapers, and the cinema.
Where did jazz music originate from?
Black American folk music
It was popular with poor black people but moved up north into clubs.
Consecutive Americans didn’t approve of the jazz age because it was offensive and they were concerned by the economy changing after the war and didn’t change their lifestyle.
